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January 21, 2016 at 3:50 PM

You can help New Zealand children live in better quality rental housing!

The New Zealand Council of Christian Social Services (NZCCSS) has teamed up with ActionStation, Unicef, CPAG and Sustainability Trust to create a simple way for you to make a submission on what the minimum housing standards in rental properties should be.

We know the quality of housing plays an important role in children's health and well-being.

We also know many lives, especially those of young children, would be saved if we had decent standards for rental housing in New Zealand.  

NZCCSS supports legislation to raise housing standards but believes the standard proposed in the Bill is set too low to make any real difference.
You can make a submission on this Amendment Bill either as an individual or organisation. 

Submit on minimum housing standards here.

Submissions are due 27 January 2016

For more information about the Bill go to NZCCSS Posts:

A chance to do more to improve housing,

Rental law changes are half hearted

See also:

Elinor Chisholm: On dampness and progress, or, how research makes a difference

Many homes are damp in New Zealand, but more rental homes than owner-occupied homes are damp. A year ago, a paper by Sarah Bierre, Mark Bennett, and Philippa Howden-Chapman pointed out that our law on residential tenancies requires rental homes to be "free of dampness". And yet, the dampness standard was not mentioned in the Government's guide to renters' rights or in the standard tenancy agreement.

When the researchers reviewed a year's worth of Tenancy Tribunal cases in which dampness was a problem, they found that adjudicators often did not apply the dampness standard, or applied it inconsistently. This was very worrying, as it meant "different tenants and landlords are, respectively, accorded different rights and duties".

The researchers put forward that the dampness standard should be consistently interpreted to require landlords "to address any dampness that results from the state of the house rather than from the actions of the tenants living in the house in a normal way".

Find out more.